The British Prime Minister Liz Truss sells herself as a free marketeer who believes in small government and economic liberty.
She founded the “Free Enterprise Group” of Conservative MPs, and co-authored Britannia Unchained – a book calling for sweeping pro-market reforms. A few days into her premiership, she announced major tax cuts, noting that “the economic debate for the past 20 years has been dominated by discussions about distribution” but “what I’m about is growing the economy”.
All this stands in stark contrast to her energy policy. Truss recently announced that households’ energy prices will be capped for the next two years – a measure that’s expected to cost the tax-payer £170 billion, or even more. (I must have missed the chapter on price caps in Britannia Unchained.)
The true scale of Truss’s bailout is documented in new report by the Bruegel thinktank.
Researchers identified all the measures that have been announced by European governments to “shield households and businesses from the energy crisis” up to September 21st. They then added up the costs of those measures to obtain a total for each country. Results are shown below:
Read More: “Free Market” Britain Spends More on Energy Bailout Than Every EU Country